Sec. 4-181. - Procedure to authorize sale.

In addition to all existing methods and authority for the collection of taxes or special assessments due to the city, the following method and authority is hereby established;

The city may file, or cause to be filed, a praecipe in the office of the prothonotary of the superior court, in and for the county, which shall contain the name of the person against whom the taxes or assessments sought to be collected were assessed, and a copy of the bills showing the amount of taxes or assessment due and the property against which the assessment was laid, and a statement of the index numbers of such property as the same appear upon the assessment rolls of the city, shall be sufficient identification and description of the said property; such index numbers relating to a property, shall, if the said property is situated in the northern collection district of said city, be designated by the letter "N," and if located in the southern collection district shall be designated by the letter "S." Thereupon the said prothonotary shall make a record of the same on a special judgment docket of said superior court against the property mentioned or described in said praecipe which said record shall consist of the following:

The name of the person in whose name the assessment was made;

The index numbers of said property, marked with the appropriate letter identifying the district in which said property is located as hereinbefore stated, as the same shall appear upon the assessment rolls of the city;

The year or years for which said taxes are due and payable;

The date of the filing of such praecipe;

The amount of the judgment, the same being the amount set forth in said praecipe.

Such judgment shall be indexed in the judgment docket itself under the index number for said property appearing upon the assessment rolls of the said city, and by referring to the page in said judgment docket whereon the record aforesaid shall appear. Thereafter upon a praecipe for monition filed in the office of the said prothonotary by the city through any person authorized on its behalf to collect taxes or assessments due to said city, a monition shall be issued by the prothonotary aforesaid to the sheriff of the county, which monition shall briefly state the amount of the judgment for the taxes or assessment due and the years thereof, together with a brief description of the property upon which said taxes or assessments are a lien and a description of such property by street and number or by the index number appearing upon the assessment roll of the said city shall be a sufficient description. Said monition shall be in substantially the following form:

"To all persons having or claiming to have any title, interest or lien upon the within described premises, take warning that unless the judgment for the taxes or assessment stated herein is paid within twenty days after the date hereof or within such period of twenty days, [and] evidence of the payment of taxes herein claimed shall be filed in the office of the prothonotary, which evidence shall be in the form of a receipted tax bill or duplicate thereof, bearing date prior to the filing of the lien in the office of the prothonotary for New Castle County, the city may proceed to sell the property herein mentioned or described for the purpose of collecting the judgment for the taxes or assessments herein stated.

"Name of person in whose name property is assessed
"Index Number of City Assessment
"Description of property
"Year or Years
"Amount of Judgment"

Said monition, or a copy thereof, shall be posted by the sheriff upon some prominent place or part of the property against which said judgment for the taxes or assessment is a lien, and the sheriff shall make due and proper return of his proceedings under said monition to said prothonotary, within ten days after the posting of said monition as aforesaid.

Alias or pluries monition may issue upon like praecipe. The posting of said notice as herein required shall constitute notice to the owner or owners and all persons having any interest in said property.

At any time after the expiration of twenty days next following the return of the sheriff upon such monition, unless before the expiration of said twenty days the said judgment and costs on said judgment shall be paid or evidence of the payment of such taxes evidenced by a receipted tax bill or a duplicate thereof bearing date therefor prior to the filing of said lien for record in the office of the prothonotary as aforesaid, upon application in writing by the city, through its city solicitor, or any other person authorized on its behalf to collect taxes or assessments due to the said city, a writ of venditioni exponas shall issue out of the office of the said prothonotary directed to the sheriff commanding the sheriff to sell the property mentioned or described in said writ and make due return of his proceedings thereunder in the same manner as is now applicable with respect to similar writs of venditioni exponas issued out of the said superior court.

Said writ shall be substantially in the following form:

"NEW CASTLE COUNTY, SS.
"The State of Delaware.

"TO THE SHERIFF OF NEW CASTLE COUNTY, GREETINGS:

"WHEREAS, by a Monition issued out of the Superior Court dated at Wilmington, the ____________ day of ____________ A.D. 19____________. IT WAS COMMANDED, that you should post the said Monition or copy thereof upon the real estate therein mentioned and described, and make a return to the said Superior Court within ten days after said posting.

"That on the ____________ day of ____________ A.D. 19____________, you returned that a copy of the said Monition was posted on the real estate therein mentioned and described on the ____________ day of ____________ A.D. 19____________.

"We therefore now command you to expose to public sale, the real estate mentioned and described in said Monition as follows: _____
and that you should cause to be made as well a certain debt of ____________ Dollars ($____________) lawful money of the United States, which to the said City of Wilmington, a Municipal corporation of the State of Delaware, is due and owing, as also the sum of ____________ Dollars ($____________) lawful money as aforesaid, for its costs, which it has sustained by the detaining of that debt, whereof the said ____________ was convicted as it appears of record and against which said property it is a lien:

"And have you that money before the Judges of our Superior Court at Wilmington, on Monday the ____________ day of next, to render to the said City of Wilmington, a Municipal corporation as aforesaid, for its debt and costs as aforesaid, and this writ:

"WITNESSETH, the Honorable ____________ at Wilmington, the ____________ day of ____________ A.D. 19____________

Issued: The description contained in such Monition shall be a sufficient description of the real estate to be sold under said writ.

(36 Del. L. ch. 143, § 1)

Editor's note—

This section was amended by implication by 50 Del. L. ch. 391, which provides for one collector of taxes for the city, thereby in effect abolishing the two collection districts which formerly existed.

Sec. 4-182. - Rights acquired upon purchase.

Any real estate or interest therein sold under the provisions hereof shall vest in the purchaser all the right, title and interest of the person in whose name said property was assessed, and/or all right, title and interest of the person or persons who are the owners thereof, and likewise freed and discharged from any dower or curtesy or statutory right, in the nature of a dower or curtesy, whether absolute or inchoate, in or to said real estate.

(36 Del. L. ch. 143, § 2)

Sec. 4-183. - Redemption generally; deed.

The owner of any such real estate sold under the provisions of this division or his legal representatives may redeem the same at any time within sixty days from the day the sale thereof is approved by the court, by paying to the purchaser or his legal representatives, successors, or assigns, the amount of the purchase price, the cost of any repairs that the purchaser may be required to make by the City of Wilmington, and twenty percent in addition to the purchase price and costs of repairs, together with all costs incurred in the proceeding, or if the purchaser or his legal representatives, successors, or assigns shall refuse to receive the same, or do not reside or cannot be found within the City of Wilmington, by paying the amount into the court for the use of the purchaser or his legal representatives, successors, or assigns. The court upon the filing of a petition by the owner of said property or real estate or his legal representative, within sixty days after the sale is approved by the court, may for good cause extend the time within which the property may be redeemed.

In the event that the owner of said property or his legal representatives shall fail to redeem said property as herein provided, the purchaser of said property or his legal representatives, successors or assigns may present a petition to the superior court setting forth the appropriate facts in conformity with this division and pray that the said superior court make an order directing the sheriff, then in office, to execute, acknowledge and deliver a deed conveying the title to said property to the petitioner; and thereupon the said superior court shall have power, after a hearing upon said petition, to issue an order directing the sheriff to execute, acknowledge and deliver a deed as prayed for in said petition, and a description of said property by the index number for said property upon the assessment roll of the city, together with a description of said property made from a map of the assessed property in the city in the office of the board of assessment for the said city shall be a sufficient description in any such deed.

If the owner of any real estate sold under an order of sale or his legal representative shall redeem said real estate, he may prefer to said superior court a petition setting forth that fact and thereupon the said superior court, after hearing and determining the facts set forth in said petition, the said superior court shall have power to cause to be entered upon the record of the judgment, under which said real estate was sold, a memorandum that the real estate described in the proceedings upon which said judgment was entered has been redeemed and thereafter the said owner shall hold such redeemed real estate subject to the same liens and in the same order of priority as they existed at the time of the sale thereof, excepting so far as the said liens have been discharged or reduced by the application of the proceeds by the said sheriff from the said sale.

(36 Del. L. ch. 143, § 3; 55 Del. L. ch. 9, § 1; 59 Del. L. ch. 167, § 2)

Sec. 4-184. - Confirmation of sale.

Upon the return of the proceedings under said writ of venditioni exponas, the superior court may inquire into the regularity of the proceedings thereunder, and either approve the sale or set it aside.

(36 Del. L. ch. 143, § 4)

Sec. 4-185. - Fees and costs.

(a)

The fees and costs to be taxed in all proceedings under this subchapter [of the Delaware Code], where not otherwise provided for, shall be as follows:

The following fees shall be charged by the Prothonotary:

Filing praecipe .....$ 1.10

Issuing monition and copy .....2.75

Issuing alias or pluries, monition and copy .....2.75

Writ of venditioni exponas .....2.25

Filing any petition in Superior Court under this subchapter [of the Delaware Code] .....1.00

Costs of paying money into Superior Court .....1.00

Costs of paying money out of Superior Court for each check drawn .....1.00

The following fees shall be charged by the Sheriff:

Posting monition or copy thereof ......75

Posting each alias or pluries, monition or copy thereof ......75

The following fee shall be charged by the Department of Finance for New Castle County:

For preparing description by metes and bounds of liened property .....10.00

The following fee shall be charged by the Receiver of Taxes for Kent County:

For preparing description of liened property .....25.00

The following fee shall be charged by the Director of Finance for Sussex County:

For preparing description of liened property .....25.00

All other charges not covered by this section shall be the same as are provided by law.

(b)

This section shall not apply to Kent County. The county government of Kent County may provide by ordinance for fees and costs to be taxed in all proceedings under this subchapter [of the Delaware Code].

State law reference— Similar provisions, 9 Del. C. § 8732.

Sec. 4-186. - Proceedings not to be brought unless tax a lien.

No proceedings shall be brought under this division unless the tax or assessment sought to be collected hereunder shall at the time of the filing of said praecipe in the office of the prothonotary be and constitute a lien upon the property against which the tax or assessment was assessed or laid.

(36 Del. L. ch. 143, § 5)

Sec. 4-187. - Certificates of tax liens.

It shall be the duty of the said assessors and collectors, on demand and tender of fees, to furnish certificates, under their respective hands and official seals, of all such taxes which are a lien on real estate in their respective districts. The fee shall be twenty-five cents for each certificate. The duties required of the assessors and collectors under this section shall be one of their obligations covered by the conditions in their official bonds.

(17 Del. L. ch. 207, § 92)

Sec. 4-188. - Release of property from tax liability.

The city shall have the authority to adopt by ordinance provisions governing the release in part or in whole of property from tax liability in those instances where the full amount of said tax is determined to be uncollectible and a release of all or part of the tax liability is deemed to be in the best interests of the city.

(17 Del. L. ch. 207, § 98; 60 Del. L. ch. 184, § 1)

Sec. 4-189. - Rules of construction.

Whenever the superior court is mentioned in this division, the same shall be held to embrace the judges or any judge thereof, and any act required or authorized to be done under this division may be done by the said superior court or any judge thereof in vacation thereof, as well as in term time.

(36 Del. L. ch. 143, § 6)

Secs. 4-190—4-200. - Reserved.